Overwhelmed by Online marketing

Stepping your business out into the online marketing world where you have so many channels to manage and a world full of targeting, sizes, definitions and questions to navigate.

Can feel a little too overwhelming; where do I start, what should I focus on and how do I attain what I am looking to achieve?

The are a couple of keys that are pivotal to success. One is gathering and understanding the data and the other is creating a strategy based upon your available resource.

Whatever plan you come up with, you have to bear in mind your available resources. Yes it’s true that you will achieve the great success through a multi channel and holistic marketing approach (which is what I teach and advocate) but if you are a small business or managing a business yourself then you have to choose your time and channels wisely and you should view the road to multi channel success as a journey or marathon not a sprint and if you do this you can achieve massive success whilst you are on your way.

Key no.1 is getting the right data, without this you are just throwing things at the wall and hoping they will stick…. and not only will this be a waste of your time but also money.

If I had to steer you in the direction of 3 core elements on an existing business I would recommend that you get really clear on the following:

Data:

Audience profiling – know your audience
What are their online habits and the user journey to finding your business/product/service
Channel opportunity review

Each business is different and will have varying results for the above. Each answer should either open or close an avenue for you to follow.

Audience profiling: focus in one imaginary customer, what do they like, what are their pains, needs or desires. What queries do they have and what content are thy interested in

Online habits and user journey: where could this customer find your business and what are the many routes into you? What is this customers journey and the story behind it.

Channel opportunity review: so this is your opportunity to sense check the above with the online channels, can you find your audience online? Is there content targeting them in the search engines, on the social channels, YouTube etc.

Once you have this information you can start to develop a strategy by answering the following questions.

Strategy:

where is your audience most active
What content will engage them
What do they need to convert.

Where is your audience most active, engaged or vocal and if not vocal or engaged can you see competitors in this space answering their needs?

What type of content is being served to them and what can you see is working well?

When you have uncovered the content answering their interests or needs what is required to convert them into a sale, purchase, relationship?

Finally in my opinion the best way of managing overwhelm and paralysis by analysis is to have plan and stick to it.

I find setting achievable goals based on a short period of time the best approach. You do however need to map out a longer term view first but then break it down into bite sized monthly or quarterly steps.

As a little freebie to help you on your way to producing quality content I have put together a little 11 page Copywriting guidelines that may help steer your content efforts which you can download easily.